Mayor Martin J. Walsh last week announced the appointments of Shaun Blugh as director of Growth Strategies and Lauren Jones as director of Business Strategy under the Economic Development Cabinet. Blugh’s responsibilities as director of Growth Strategies will include creating and executing a comprehensive strategy to attract new businesses in emerging industries across Boston’s diverse neighborhoods and pursuing new business leads, among others.
Shaun Blugh
Blugh joined Mayor Walsh’s administration in December 2015 as the city’s first chief diversity officer. In this position, he released the first-ever Workforce Profile Report to transparently examine the racial and gender makeup of Boston’s municipal employee base, and led the Diversity and Inclusion Team in their work to diversify city leadership, staff and members of boards and commissions. Blugh also worked on developing a diversity dashboard that builds on the information made available in the Workforce Profile Report.
Prior to joining the city, Blugh worked for the IMB Development Corporation. At IMB, Blugh conducted research on various industry sectors across the country in his role as director of Due Diligence.
As director of Business Strategy, Jones will be focused on retaining existing businesses, engaging the Boston business community and working in partnership with the director of Growth Strategies to strengthen Boston for growth as a place to do business in the national and international markets. Jones started with the Economic Development Cabinet as deputy director of Business Strategy and served as an important member of the team that worked with General Electric.
Over the past two years, Jones has led key initiatives for the Walsh administration, including the Mayor’s Summer Jobs Program, the development of the Mayor’s Mentoring Movement to recruit 1,000 mentors for Boston’s youth and the successful passage of banning smokeless tobacco in Boston parks. She continues to provide a lead role in the execution of President Obama’s ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ (MBK) Initiative in Boston. Before joining the City of Boston in January 2014, Jones worked in state government for over six years, including in business and workforce development roles.
